Page Two

ROM School

The first ROM school assignment was in Chicago, living in the Stevens Hotel facing Lake Michigan. Our code classes were in the Blackstone Hotel and technical training was in the Chicago coliseum. Again, this does not say much for TOUGH military training.

Well, the good things can last only so long. The air corps turned the Stevens Hotel back to civilian use and we ended up in Sioux Falls, South Dakota. What a change! Now it meant just settling down to learn Morse code and how to operate and troubleshoot aircraft radio equipment.

There was a requirement to keep the headsets on for the full four hours of code classes. To listen to code for four full hours would probably result in making a person "code happy". To prevent this, there were periodic breaks for music and/or news. During some of these breaks, there were requests that anyone interested should try out for aviation cadet training. There is lady luck again. It took me all of two nanoseconds to jump at the chance. Since there was no assurance of acceptance, it was also wise to keep up with the ROM training. During the last week of ROM school, the acceptance for aviation cadets came through. When we left Florida for ROM school, we had been told that effective (he time the train left the station we were promoted to Private First Class (PFC). Upon arrival at Sioux Falls, five of us learned that we actually had bypassed PFC and were corporals. This may seem to mean little, but it has a later bearing. When we entered the Cadet program, we were given the choice of being classified as a cadet or a student. As a student, we would retain our rating and pay, albeit, no wearing of stripes. The bottom line was financial. The cadet pay was $75 per month and the corporal pay was $66. The kicker was, as a student, there was a bonus of 1/2 of base pay for flying. So, taking the student classification, but as a corporal, meant $99 per month. The decision was rather easy since the $75 cadet pay had no flight bonus.

Now comes the chance to realize a dream that started when I observed a small plane overhead on a small farm in Southern Indiana. The dream was that some day I would be up there. Too bad a world war made it happen. Who knows, it may have happened anyway.

College Training Detachment (CTD)

The next move was to Keesler Field, Mississippi to await an assignment to a College Training Detachment (CTD). About the only memory I have of Keesler Field was sleeping in tents under mosquito netting. The joke of the day was that two mosquitoes were debating over who got the largest human the previous night.

The CTD assignment resulted in a move to West Texas State Teachers College in Canyon, Texas. This was the real introduction to the square meal, white glove inspection, demerits, penalty laps, upper class/lower class status, and other items of the cadet world. The stated intended goal was to make sure that, in the end; we would be considered adequate candidates to be officers and gentlemen (commission wording).

Most of the time in CTD involved classroom work. However, we were to get nine hours of flying instruction. After hours of good and bad stalls, loops, 360°, dives, spins, takeoffs and landings, the final flight arrived. We were not permitted to solo, but on my last flight the instructor said to forget he was present and do the complete routine. The logbook for these flying hours meant a lot to me and I still have it. On a personal note, this was the first and only time I spent Christmas away from home.

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